Justin Trudeau boxing: Liberal MP returns to the ring prior to debate

Don’t call it a comeback because he’s in the lead, but Liberal leadership frontrunner Justin Trudeau returned to the boxing ring last week as a warmup to a very-much gloves-still-on leadership debate in Winnipeg.

Trudeau, whose thorough dismantling of Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau in the “Thrilla on the Hilla” charity boxing match last March showed the world there’s a reason he has hockey hair, took in some light sparring at Winnipeg’s Pan Am gym Friday.

The Montreal MP, who took up boxing two decades ago, sparred with the gym’s owner, Harry Black, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.

Trudeau later took part in Saturday’s leadership debate, which many pundits seem to think should be encased in equation marks, as the Liberals rivals sat down for 11-minute “interviews” and never actually faced off against each other.

The debate, which took place on two plush chairs as the leadership rivals took questions from moderator Harvey Locke, didn’t even win many accolades from the Grits in attendance.

Trudeau, who is easily bests his fellow competitors in the leadership polls, may be crowned leader on April 14 in Ottawa. After raising about $675,000 in three months, Trudeau has a war chest bigger than all of his eight rivals combined.

Trudeau’s defeat of the bigger Brazeau was (presumably seriously) called a “career-defining” moment by at least one acclaimed Canadian journalist.